Gloria Feldt, President and Founder of Take The Lead, Author, Public Speaker, Activist

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Randi Rhodes Plays Don Imus

Kudos to Air America for suspending Randi Rhodes because of her utterly inappropriate, unprofessional comments about Hillary Clinton. During a rant in San Francisco, at a public event sponsored by an Air America affiliate, Rhodes called Clinton a f**g whore, among other incendiary language.

Sexist slurs are no more right coming from a liberal commentator than from a Don Imus, and they are just as wrong coming from a woman as from a man. Air America’s swift and sure action was the responsible course. Rhodes should not be allowed back on the air until and unless she apologizes publicly to Clinton and the women of America. In addition, she should be sent for remedial training to the nearest Women’s Studies program.

Here’s what Air America’s chair, Charlie Kireker said in a brief statement. I encourage you to post your support for Air America’s action there. The Hillary haters are posting in abundance; they seem unable to separate their personal animosity for the candidate from the issue at hand, which is the continued and almost knee-jerk use of sexist language in the media to disparage any woman not in the favor of the talk show host. Sorry, but that’s unacceptable no matter whom one supports for President.

GLORIA FELDT is the New York Times bestselling author of several books including No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power, a sought-after speaker and frequent contributor to major news outlets, and the Co-Founder and President of Take The Lead. People has called her “the voice of experience,” and among the many honors she has been given, Vanity Fair called her one of America’s “Top 200 Women Legends, Leaders, and Trailblazers,” and Glamour chose her as a “Woman of the Year.”

3 thoughts on “Randi Rhodes Plays Don Imus”

I suppose Rhodes’ resignation today is cause for celebration here on the blog. Sadly, it’s PC morality police like Ms. Feldt that drove Bill Maher off the air, so why not Randi Rhodes too? I only hope that, like Maher, she’ll find a suitable new home and come back stronger than before, galvanized by the controversy.

First Samantha Power, now Randi Rhodes. No matter the magnitude of the insult (from Power’s harmless “monster” to Rhodes’ coarse bon mot), denigrating the good senator is evidently unacceptable, whereas ignoring her ongoing attempt at coup by superdelegate, to say nothing of her demonstrable lies on the stump, is for Clinton supporters just peachy.

I agree with the previous commenter. Had it been Condi Rice in Rhodes’ crosshairs, we’d be hearing nothing but crickets from my fellow Democrats. Well, maybe a polite golf clap.

I think Ms. Feldt totally misses the mark. Sexism as defined by the American Heritage Dictionary, “Discrimination based on gender, especially discrimination against women”. If Rhodes meant that Clinton was a whore based solely on the fact that she was a woman, it would also mean that Rhodes was calling herself a whore. That just doesn’t make sense.

But saying that Rhodes’ comments were sexist is not even the biggest error in this comparison. Imus’ remarks concerned college students, people who are not “public figures”, who do not wield great political power. Attacking political underdogs vs. the political elites are universes apart. Since when do we inhibit or stop critique of political figures? Even if Rhodes comments were “inappropriate”, or “unprofessional”, the redeeming value of her critique (that Clinton’s campaign practices were immoral) far outweighs those considerations.